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Monthly Archives: August 2011

Walkin’ Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 30, 2011

The last few days I’ve been serious about training for my half marathon, which happens Sunday in Anaheim, California, at Disneyland.

On Friday I walked 7 miles, Saturday 4 miles, Sunday 2 miles and Monday, my last big effort before I slow it down, 10.25 miles in 2 hours and 51 minutes. My brother Charlie, my advisor on all things running related, even though I’m not actually running, says I should ramp it down considerably now and “let everything heal.” This morning I took a more leisurely 2 Â½ mile walk and I’m feeling pretty good.

I haven’t been taking pictures because I was focused on the walking. I will get back to that after I come back from California!

Charlie says the weather will be great for the race, high of 83 and low of 64, cloudy in the morning. The race starts at 6 a.m. so it’s done before it gets too hot. I will need to finish the 13.1 miles in 3 Â½ hours but they start counting that after the last person starts, which should give me a little extra time. Basically I just want to finish, but it would be nice not to be the last one in. And the fact that it’s a pretty flat course, and at sea level, should help a lot! It’s fun because many of the participants dress up as Disney characters, and the characters from the park are all around while we run, with music and other distractions. We haven’t decided whether we’ll be dressing up as characters ““ we all have red T-shirts with our family team name on the back that we’ll probably wear.

I am including below a picture of our cast of “characters” that will be in the race. From left, they are my brother Charlie and his wife Margie, who live in Arvada, my cousin Dawn, who lives in Lake Arrowhead, California, and yours truly. Dawn came here in May and we all did the Bolder Boulder in our different modes of walking, jogging, or running, and that’s where this picture was taken. Dawn, Margie and Charlie did the Disneyland race last year and I just watched, but I decided to try it this year.

Walkin’ Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 25, 2011

I’m headed west again today, to the shadier parts of town! From home I walk toward 9th and Arapahoe where I pass the Highland Building with its beautiful iron fence. When I lived in this area in the late 1970s and ’80s, Highland was no longer a public school but it did house the Community Free School for a while. Now it’s a beautifully appointed office building with a private club, the City Club, on the bottom floor.

The historic Hannah Barker house, in very poor shape right now, is across the street on Arapahoe. Historic Boulder is raising more than $1 million to renovate it. Hannah Barker was one of the first teachers in Boulder, and the house where she lived was built in 1870.

I turn south on 7th Street and detour onto Marine Street to see my former “hippie house,” as my husband called it. We lived there from about 1977 to 1982. I could walk to work at the Camera and he could walk to CU, and our son could walk to Flatirons Elementary School. There was a wonderful strawberry patch in the back yard. Life was good.

At Seventh and University a woman is working in a large garden on the corner where my son’s babysitter used to live. The house is gone.

I head past Flatirons Elementary and turn uphill on College to 6th Street, enjoying the shade of the trees. I search out Seventh and Aurora, where famed astronaut Scott Carpenter lived as a boy. I’m not sure which house it was, and none seem to be marked as such. He was one of the original seven astronauts in Project Mercury and I’ve heard he chose the name Aurora 7 for his spacecraft in honor of this intersection. Carpenter and John Glenn are the only Mercury 7 astronauts still living, according to Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Carpenter

At Baseline Road I get a nice shot of Chautauqua Meadow and the Flatirons. A couple of paintings in my house show the same scene. When I lived in South Carolina I would buy art of Boulder when I came here to visit. Now I buy art of the ocean when I visit South Carolina. Go figure.

Heading back toward The Hill I pass The Academy at 970 Aurora. I remember when a fire destroyed the top floor of the building in the 1980s. It was originally a girls’ Catholic school called Mount St. Gertrude’s Academy, then later housed University of Colorado offices. Now it’s all beautifully restored and calls itself a boutique retirement community. The name Mount St. Gertrude is etched above the door. theacademyboulder.com

The Pi Beta Phi house at 11th and Aurora houses the same sorority I belonged to at Knox College in Illinois. We didn’t have sorority houses at all, let alone an elegant one like this, which sleeps more than 80 girls according to its website, and is the largest Pi Phi house west of the Mississippi. Some young people I know remember coming here to see Santa Claus at holiday time, a longtime project of the sorority. pibetaphi.org/pibetaphi/colorado/chapters.aspx?id=6160

One more historic building is Harbeck House, on Euclid between 12th and 13th streets, home of the Boulder History Museum. The museum is about to open an exhibit about the year 1968 in America that will appeal to many people, especially in my age group. We were in college then and the times were tumultuous. Check it out ““ the museum is one of Boulder’s best-kept secrets. boulderhistory.org

Walking through The Hill commercial area toward Broadway, I see a young woman writing on this chalkboard at 13th and Pennsylvania that has spaces for “What Inspires You.” Many of the comments aren’t too legible or even worth repeating. She was writing something about dance.

I’ve already mentioned this to some of the people involved, but I still can’t figure why Alfalfa’s made the store’s name break and go around the corners of its building at Broadway and Arapahoe. Depending where you’re standing, it might look like Alfa or lfa’s, but seldom like Alfalfa’s. I love the store, though. The soup bar is my favorite.

Walkin’ Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 23, 2011

I think I overdid last week and my left foot is still a little sore, so I am not going to do so many miles this week, especially since the race at Disneyland is less than two weeks away!

I decide today to check out the Newlands area, the part of North Boulder that’s west of Broadway. Old North Boulder, where I live, is on the east side. Like ONB, Newlands has lots of older homes, likely 1950s-ish, but lots of them have been updated and/or eliminated and replaced with more modern homes. I want to look for interesting houses and especially for pretty yards and gardens that will inspire me to update mine.

Heading west on Alpine, I stop and sit on a staircase to adjust the insole of my left shoe. Maybe that’s been the problem. It feels better already.

I turn north on 9th Street and see this sign at North Boulder Park: “Keep it clean because we’re all downstream” referring to Goose Creek, a reminder that our water keeps going no matter what we dump into it.

The park is pretty quiet about 9 a.m., with just a few people in an exercise class in the shade of some trees.

I love the stone used in this house. Maybe it’s original, maybe not, but it looks like it belongs here, unlike some others! It’s similar red sandstone to that used in many buildings on the University of Colorado campus.

I am not a good enough photographer to avoid having my shadow in this shot, but I love the lily pond in this yard. Goose Creek actually passes under my back yard ““ maybe I could make it into a fountain? Just kidding.

I continue up Ninth Street till it ends at Hawthorn and turn west, laboring up a significant hill. One of many construction sites looks like the original back of the house has been saved and a new front seems to be under construction.

I love the look of wrought-iron fences. These two are gorgeous, smaller versions of some I’ve seen in Charleston, S.C.

At the top of the hill I turn south on Fourth Street. I’d like to keep going uphill, to see some of the gorgeous homes I know are up there, but I will wait for a cooler day to make that climb. Here’s a cute mailbox ““ “the dog ate my bill,” you could say to a creditor.

Two construction sites next to one another. And meanwhile repair work is going on in the street nearby. Noisy for the neighbors.

I love little yard decorations like this one ““ my newspaper in Myrtle Beach had a sun wearing sunglasses as its logo. I still have a whole collection of sun face jewelry ““ earrings, pins, necklaces. Once the airport security people took me aside, thinking one of the pins in my purse, with its metal pointed rays, might be a martial arts throwing star.

South past Mapleton the street gets very shady as the old trees on Mapleton Hill keep the hot sun at bay.

One of the huge old cottonwood trees on Pearl Street as I head eastward. I hate that they are starting to die off. A story in the Camera this week said that two of the trees along Boulder Creek will be taken down because they are rotted inside. They are just about irreplaceable.

Home again after two hours, including a stop at the Trident Coffee Shop to see my old Camera friend, former sports editor Dan Creedon. My mileage: 4.75 miles. My foot doesn’t feel so bad now, so maybe the worst is over.

Walkin’ Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 21, 2011

It’s Sunday and I’m doing a short walk today because I’m resting a foot that’s a little sore. So just a mile and a half around the ‘hood, Old North Boulder. Here are some things I love, in no particular order:

Walkin’ Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 19, 2011

It’s Friday, my day for Rotary Club, at A Spice of Life Events Center near 55th and Arapahoe. I need to be there around noon for our weekly meeting, which lasts until 1:30. Then I’m going to see the movie “I Am,” at the The Dairy Center for the Arts, at 26th and Walnut in the new Boedecker Theater. It starts at 2:30.

And since I’ve gotten up a little late, I decide to try getting around town on foot today, which will add up to a pretty long walk.

It’s cloudy and humid when I leave home, and there’s a possibility of rain later in the day. It’s still in the 70s but it’s supposed to be hot this afternoon. I’ve planned carefully so that I don’t look too out of place at Rotary, wearing long pants and a sleeveless shirt with my walking shoes, but in my little backpack carrying a cardigan to put on at the meeting and bringing a hairbrush and lipstick ““ and deodorant! ““ to make myself a little more tolerable to be around.

I leave my house in North Boulder about 10:45 and head east on Valmont. I’m avoiding Arapahoe or Pearl, pretty busy streets, so I decide Valmont is my best option. It is pretty muggy today but not so hot yet, and I make pretty good time. I am taking just a few pictures so I can move faster.

A week or so ago I walked along Valmont, just as far as Airport Road. Today as I get a bit further I find the sidewalk ends on the south side of the street just after the bus stop, so I jaywalk to the other side, where luckily there is a nice, although meandering, walkway/bikeway that adjoins the Valmont bike park.

Last time I didn’t go far enough to see the dog park and today I find it, a bit east of the bike park with a nice parking area and a few dogs and their guardians, as we say in Boulder.

It’s starting to get hot now and the sun has reemerged. I’m sure glad I brought the deodorant. I turn south on 55th Street and walk through the industrial areas. My former colleagues at the Camera aren’t too far from here but it’s almost noon so I can’t stop to say hello.

As I walk down the road to Spice, off Arapahoe about two blocks north of 55th, one of my fellow Rotarians stops his SUV and asks if I’d like a ride. Funny guy!

After I stop in the ladies’ room and clean up, I’m there in time for lunch and a great program by Patty Limerick, a Rotarian and director of the Center of the American West, who talks about her new book on Denver Water, coming out soon.

Out at 1:30, I head back to Arapahoe and west toward The Dairy Center. I hope I can get there in 45 minutes but I am slowing down a little. One foot hurts and I’m really hot so I stop for water a couple of times. I can’t resist taking a picture of some beautiful flowers near 47th and Arapahoe and I try to get one of a guy fishing in Boulder Creek where it passes under Arapahoe. He’s too far away and doesn’t show up, but it sure looks cooler down there!

Going as fast as I can, I arrive at The Dairy at 2:25, rushing inside just in time to get a seat in the back. The Boe is a 60-seat art cinema that opened in March and has been showing the most interesting films you can imagine, thanks to a very involved group of local folks who select them.

“I Am” is a documentary by Tom Shadyac, director of such memorable and very successful films as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “The Nutty Professor.” Following a serious bicycling accident he wonders if he really knows what happiness is ““ or if anybody does. He asks a lot of people and it’s very thought-provoking. The message I got is something like, “Can’t we all just get along?” and that human beings are meant to collaborate, not compete, and if we do that the world will be a better place. NaÃ¯ve? Maybe. But it’s definitely worth seeing and thinking about. The film has sold out every time it’s been shown at The Dairy. Check www.thedairy.org/cinema for film schedules.

Afterward I head for home, arriving about 4:30. I’ve done 9 miles, interrupted by stops for Rotary and the film, and I am wiped out. It was thundering a bit the last few blocks before home but I beat the rain and I’m glad to see it cool things down a bit. And there’s a rainbow!

Walkin’ Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 15, 2011

This is a frequent walk that I’ve done a number of times but I haven’t blogged about it yet, so here goes. It’s kind of a circle and I start at my house and go north on 19th Street to Yarmouth, then west to 14th, north to Lee Hill Road, west to Broadway and south to home. Or I can do it the other way around. Sometimes I take little detours as I did today. It’s usually about six miles and I usually do it in an hour and 45 minutes.

This pretty little park is on 19th north of Iris. I often see deer around here. Today a woman and her dog are the only occupants.

The deer are a little further north today, just before I get to Crestview Elementary, where it’s the first day of school. A family of three deer crossed the street one at a time, each looking both ways, with Dad bringing up the rear. Almost as if they were going to school!

The human families are out in force headed toward Crestview by bike, on foot and in school buses. I feel emotional watching the little ones with their moms and dads, remembering how it felt many years ago when I took my son to Bear Creek Elementary for the first day of kindergarten, then later to Flatirons Elementary, Base Line Junior High and Boulder High. I don’t think he let me take him to Boulder High, though. Maybe not even to Base Line (and yes, that’s how it was spelled. That building now houses New Vista High School.) I am a little annoyed at all the people trying to drive through the school zone who are obviously impatient with the kids and parents. It would be nice if they had taken a different route to work this morning.

EFAA’s new quarters at 15th and Yarmouth have their sign outside, letting passersby know what kinds of nonperishable items are needed for the Emergency Family Assistance Association’s food pantry. The sign might have gotten a little more notice when it was located at 9th and Arapahoe near their old building. But you can check EFAA’s website at http://efaa.org/index.php/What-we-do/Basic-Needs-Food.html to find out what they need.

I like this red rock sculpture in the little park at 14th and Yellow Pine Drive, in the Holiday neighborhood.

Over on Broadway a bigger landmark identifies the Uptown development. Coincidentally, when I get home and look at the Camera, Business Plus has a story about more development in North Boulder. http://www.dailycamera.com/business/ci_18664047

On the way home I take a detour to see the community gardens behind the Boulder Rec Center. An amazingly beautiful sight with sunflowers everywhere.

At home I see that my detours took me a little further than I thought: 6.71 miles in 2 hours. It’s feeling great!

Walkin’ Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 14, 2011

Even though it’s sort of humid this morning and I’ve gotten kind of a late start, I decide to go for endurance. I would like to do at least one 10-mile walk before I go to California. I figure if I can do that here at high altitude, without the excitement of a race crowd, I should be able to do 13.1 miles at sea level in a crowd dressed as Disney characters!

Since I’ve done North Broadway several times I decide to try heading south this time. I live a little north of downtown so South Broadway will be a longer stretch for me than the northern route. Just past Arapahoe I take a slight detour because I have always seen signs for the Andrews Arboretum but never went down that path before. It goes past Boulder High’s football field and up the hill to the new Institute for the Behavioral Sciences building at CU, near the Grandview neighborhood. The Arboretum is managed by the city’s parks department and their website says that a former botany teacher at Boulder High once used it as an outdoor classroom. She asked when she retired that it be purchased by the school district and it was acquired by the city in 1989. It’s named for Darwin M. Andrews, described as a “horticulturist and world citizen” on a plaque from Historic Boulder.

I love the little bungalows in Grandview but only a few are left. Most of them are used by CU ““ organizations such as the Conference on World Affairs and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival have offices there ““ with a couple appearing to be student rentals. Rumors persist that this area might become the site of a conference center for the university.

Back on Broadway I head south again, along the western edge of the campus. Across Baseline the Goodwill store is open for donations.

As I stop to photograph an underpass at Skunk Creek a couple of runners pass me by. On the other side of the underpass is a cute piece of art representing, of course, a skunk. The sign at right thanks Jon Hatch and family for adopting the median. I worked with Jon at the Camera before he got into the real estate business. Thanks, Jon!

On the west side of Broadway is the facility where several of Boulder’s federal labs are located. Twenty-four have facilities in Colorado, including in Boulder County the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Not all of them are located on this site. On foot it’s surprising how large these buildings are and how much space they occupy. I have never been inside the labs, some of which hold regular public tours, and I need to put that on my list of things to do.

The walkway/bike path here separates walkers and cyclists, which increases the safety factor considerably. In the last three weeks of almost daily walking I have been appalled at how few cyclists give a warning when they come up behind and pass you, sometimes even on the sidewalk. Some seem to enjoy seeing how close they can get without actually hitting you. Walkers seem to be pretty low on the totem pole for respect.

Hereabouts I decide to pick up speed and don’t take pictures for a while. I consider turning around at Table Mesa Drive but decide to keep going. It was cloudy and fairly cool when I started out but when the sun comes out it’s hot and muggy as it approaches 11 a.m.

Past Table Mesa shopping center and all the businesses on the west side of Broadway, the path dead-ends past Darley and splits into a westbound link to the South Boulder Rec Center and an eastbound link under Broadway. I go east under the street and south a little bit to the Cornerstone Church, where worshipers are arriving for an 11 a.m. service. At this point I’m feeling the uphill climb so I decide to turn around and walk back on the east side of Broadway.

Since I’m slowing down a bit I stop to photograph a lovely vegetable garden at Hanover.

Next I encounter a group of a half-dozen or so practicing flycasting at Martin Park with no water or fish in sight.

I seem to see a lot of discarded furniture items around town. It’s hard to understand why someone would leave a mattress in this spot along Lashley Lane, the frontage road east of Broadway and north of Table Mesa Drive. And a little further down are a sofa and some broken chairs.

The South Broadway Church of the Nazarene has a sign out front stating that it’s the home of The Basement, BoulderBasement.org, apparently a gathering spot. Another banner advertises free coffee, free wi-fi and live music. At home I check the website and it says The Basement is “a community of faith centered around positive music, engaging discussion, strong personal relationships and a shared vision to improve our community and our world.”

At Baseline I cross to the west side of the street. When I pass the Chi Omega sorority house at Euclid, the sisters are singing and shouting even though it’s only about noon on Sunday. Maybe they are getting ready for rush, which starts Sept. 2. Part of the yard in front of their house is torn up, probably because of construction that will build an underpass nearby for university students and faculty.

On College Avenue, the new building going up where Jones Drug used to be has a nice black-and-gold CU color scheme.

I chug the last of my water and head downhill toward home.

I didn’t quite make it to 10 miles ““ 9.2 miles in 2 hours, 41 minutes. But that’s pretty darn good for an old lady!

Walkin’ Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 12, 2011

Today I plan a long walk ““ 8 miles is my goal, and my plan is to walk out Valmont to 55th Street and back. I leave home at 7 a.m., and it’s nice and cool, in the 60s, cloudy and a little on the humid side. I head east on Balsam, which turns into Edgewood, which turns into Valmont east of 28th Street. The streets are pretty quiet until 28th Street, where traffic starts to pick up. The clouds are intriguing, with a little sun peeking through, but most of the cars have their lights on.

Interesting businesses along Valmont, including Sturtz & Copeland florists, a Boulder institution ““ I remember when it was next to Boulder High on Arapahoe. A little strip center has a homebrew shop, alterations and tuxedo rental, the Deli Zone and a Latino travel agent. Next door, Modern Specialists, where we took all our Volkswagens in the ’70s and ’80s, is still around, too.

Around the corner on 30th is Boulder Stove & Flooring, open again after the horrific murder last year of Staci and Sean Griffin, the couple who owned it, by one of their employees who then killed himself. Staci had helped me with the remodel of my house a couple of years ago, helping me pick out tile and carpet, and we had become friends. So very sad for their daughter, who was a seventh-grader at the time.

Crossing the railroad tracks east of Valmont, the 1890 Boulder Depot in the hazy distance looks like it might almost still be in use. The historic building, originally located downtown, was moved there in 2008 to make room for the Barnes & Noble store now at 30th and Arapahoe. Plans call for it someday to be part of Boulder Junction, the Transit Village planned for the area.

The beginnings of Valmont Regional Park, with an elaborate fence in place. When finished, it will be a regional park of 132 acres.

Across the street is the already completed bike park portion of Valmont Park, which doesn’t have much going on this time of the morning. It opened officially in June and is open dawn to dusk. Last time I was here a kids’ bike race was going on but the park wasn’t finished yet. The kids had a ball riding up and down hills. Now just a couple of buildings, one with restrooms, look like they are still under construction. The sign says it’s a dog park as well but I doubt many dogs are there at this time of the day so I don’t want to stop and find it.

I am taking a detour here off Valmont onto Airport Road because I want to see the old sculpture that once stood at Baseline and Broadway, sort of in the middle of the intersection. It’s hard to imagine that, with all the traffic there is now on Broadway. I thought the thing ““ it’s hard to describe otherwise, and was widely considered an eyesore back then ““ had been demolished long ago but I found out a few years ago when visiting the jail (as part of Leadership Boulder, not for personal reasons), that it had been resurrected and placed out on Airport Road.

I think about going to check out the airport, where there was a plane crash just yesterday “” only minor injuries to the pilot, thankfully. But I’m curious what else is on this road, which past Airport Road’s left turn into the airport is called Airport Boulevard.

Walking past the jail I notice some of the inmates’ garden plots, some with elaborate decorations, one including a cross. When I come back later one man is working in the garden.

An installation of solar panels is being put in up the road and behind it is the county’s massive Communications and Emergency Operations Center, which handles 911 calls. We’re up pretty high above the city and this is where the headquarters will be if there’s a flood ““ far from a former location at 6th and Canyon which is smack in the floodplain.

So what is on Airport Boulevard? The state emissions testing center, for one thing. Then there are a great many office buildings: Cisco, Amgen, Agilent, LSI. I see a sign that says the area is called Highpoint and I can see why. We’re up at about the same level as the top of Valmont Butte, visible in the distance. A steady stream of cars comes in, presumably people on their way to work. I keep thinking the street will head downhill to 55th but when I get to where I think it should, it’s a dead end. Oh well, I’ll have to backtrack. On the way I see the “Welcome to Boulder” sign directed at people who have flown in. “Have you closed out your Flight Plan?” it asks. That question works on several levels.

Headed back to the west, I hear a loud chattering near my feet and it’s a prairie dog chirping at me as I pass a village of them along the bikepath at Valmont and Foothills Parkway. It’s hard to get a good picture of one of the critters with my little camera because they move so fast.

I walk along the bikepath, taking care to stay way on the right, but somebody still whizzes by a few inches from my left side with no verbal warning.

Passing under the Foothills Parkway I find myself on a beautiful bikepath.

I see other people walking on the paths, too. I hope the bikes will be kind to us. This is the Goose Creek path, which will take me back to Valmont. I could also get onto what looks like a Pearl Street path that intersects it.

In the distance I see a long train passing between Pearl and Valmont and, I’m sure, clogging traffic as it goes. As I get closer I get a few interesting shots, one with the depot’s spire visible behind the train.

The Goose Creek Greenway path is beautiful, passing through rocks, cattails and other greenery and brownery reflecting August in Colorado. A trickle of water can be heard. Goose Creek flows through my neighborhood, underground, so we don’t see it or hear it there. But its presence means we are in a flood plain and have to pay flood insurance. At this point this year it doesn’t look like much of a threat.

Closer to home, the clouds are starting to lift from the Flatirons. It’s supposed to be very hot again today but it is still cool right now.

I travel the greenway until it meets Dellwood west of Folsom. Home at 9:15 a.m., I’ve walked 8.15 miles according to the new app on my phone that uses GPS to track my walk. Hooray for technology!